Which app categories are banking the most?

How much do app developers make? Really? Well, it’s a tricky one to answer. Research by CasinoDailyNews seems to suggest that making a game is your best bet, with 90% of the top grossing apps being games. Currently, at the top of the pile in the Google Play market at least, is Clash of Clans, which is a very popular strategy game where you can play against millions of other players online. Indeed, the research shows that strategy games dominate the charts and represent 28% of the 50 top grossing apps.

Why are strategy games so popular? Is it the multi-player aspect? Or the fact that you can hop back into your virtual world as and when you wish? When a game becomes successful and many players jump on-board it offers a variety and a challenging world with a social aspect too.

In an unexpected second place you’ll find that the casino category is riding high, with a 16% share and games such as Bingo Bash grabbing well over 10 million downloads. Mobile slot machine apps such as Bingo Blitz, which you’ll find at number 35 in the Top Grossing Apps listing, have been downloaded many millions of times and this particular one has been recommended by nearly a quarter of a million people on Google alone. There’s other poker and casino apps even higher up the charts, so you can’t really question their popularity and, if you’re a developer, creating an app like this could actually work, especially when there’s no actual money at risk in most of these games.

What about those “casual” or “throwaway” games, like the “can’t stop seeing it” Candy Crush? These apps have to be popular, surely? Well, no actually. They come in third place, with non-gaming apps trailing below with a 10% share of the Top Grossing Apps.

The five non gaming apps were GPS/Map and Sport and Health applications, the first one being Navionics, a maritime navigation apps ranking 9th.

Sure, there’s many ways to look at the data provided by the app stores. You can look at the Most Downloaded Apps or the Top Grossing Apps. They’re not necessarily the same, but it seems that you lot are loving your strategy games and there’s no sign of that changing any time soon.